Michigan’s health care community is asking for parents to get their children immunized to protect them from infectious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella and more, as they highlighted the importance of the National Infant Immunization Week from April 26 to May 3 at a press event at Providence Hospital in Southfield.

According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Michigan has the fourth highest non-medical exemption rate in the nation, with 5.3 percent of parents choosing not to immunize their children. The other three states with the exemption rates over 5 percent are Oregon, Vermont and Idaho.

“Childhood immunizations protect our kids from dangerous, infectious diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, but more and more Michigan kids are at risk as non-medical opt-out rates rise and immunization rates fall,” said Anthony F. Ognjan, D.O., FACP, chief of Infectious Diseases for McLaren Macomb.